SCENE IV.
Enter Bardolph, and Page.
Sil.
Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as
I think.
Shal.
Good morrow, honest gentlemen.
Bard.
I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?
-- 294 --
Shal.
I am Robert Shallow, Sir, a poor Esquire of
this Country, one of the King's Justices of the peace.
What is your good pleasure with me?
Bard.
My captain, Sir, commends him to you, my
captain Sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman, by heav'n!
and a most gallant leader.
Shal.
He greets me well Sir, I knew him a good
back-sword man. How doth the good Knight? may
I ask, how my lady his wife doth?
Bard.
Sir, pardon, a soldier is better accommodated
than with a wife.
Shal.
It is well said, Sir; and it is well said indeed
too, better accommodated—it is good, yea, indeed,
is it; good phrases, surely, are, and ever were, very
commendable. Accommodated—it comes of accommodo;
2 notevery good, a good phrase.
Bard.
Pardon me, Sir, I have heard the word.
Phrase, call you it? By this day, I know not the
phrase, but I will maintain the word with my sword,
to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding
good command. Accommodated, that is, when a man
is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is,
being whereby he may be thought to be accommodated,
which is an excellent thing.
-- 295 --
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
